 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, and the Vice President. Please be seated with stars and stripes, Skipper and Dennis Conner, members of the crew, and ladies and gentlemen, to the day the cup that went down under has come back up. It's only appropriate to be greeting the Skipper and crew with the stars and stripes here in front of the stars and stripes. And by the way, you might be interested to know that Prime Minister Hawk of Australia and I had a little bet on the side. If Cucabura III had won, I was going to give the Prime Minister one of those cowboy type hats that I wear now and then out at the ranch. And if you all won, well, there it is. It'll be revealed. That's the Australian version. And you know, it's the funniest thing. I just know that whenever I put that on, I'm going to find myself turning to Nancy and saying goodbye, mate. But there are so many people who help to make this victory possible. All together, the United States was represented by six syndicates in Australia. Each had its own yachts, and each involved literally hundreds of people, bringing the best of American technology to bear on the complicated challenges of 12-meter racing. In designing stars and stripes, herself engineers used computer techniques to provide the yacht with a wing keel and a special rounded nose. Plastic experts gave the hull a coating that sheeted the yacht with thousands of tiny V-shaped grooves called riblets. Sailmakers used a mixture of Kevlar, Mylar, and an entirely new fabric, Spectra, to produce hundreds of sails suited to every conceivable weather condition. And stars and stripes was fitted with an onboard computer to monitor performance and communicate before the race with computers on shore and in her tender. I just have to believe it says something about the competitiveness of American technology that this time around, the United States entered perhaps the best designed, most technologically advanced 12-meter yacht ever crescent. But no matter how sleek the yacht, it still all comes down to what the skipper and crew do with her on the open ocean. To the skipper, the navigator, tactician, mainsail trimmer, pitman, bowman, sewerman, grinders, and trimmers of stars and stripes, congratulations. You performed up to the highest standards in conditions that were arduous and exhausting, and you made considerable sacrifices to do so. And now, if you'll permit me, a word to the skipper himself, Dennis Conner. Dennis, in 1983, you sailed against the Australian Challenger in what was universally acknowledged to be a slower boat. But your skills as a sailor were such that you forced the Challengers to go all seven races before Australia, too, finally took the America's Cup. In the races off Fremantle, you showed your skill all over again. During the Challenger final race against New Zealand, stars and stripes blew a jib to many skippers that would have been caused for panic. But you only said, hey, this is too bad. That's not all I said. All that you said that was printable was a pain. But then, while your crew scrambled to replace the bad sail, you calmly tacked to keep your opponent from gaining the wind. And in three minutes and two seconds, both the new jib and jig were up, and stars and stripes won the race. And the finals themselves, well, there's no better way to describe your performance than to quote the skipper you defeated, Australian Ian Murphy, Murray. At the suggestion that stars and stripes had simply had better luck, Skipper Murray answered, I'm not a great believer in luck in sailing. The wind Dennis left us was pretty much zilch. He won because he was always in the right spot. Beyond your skill, Dennis, there's the matter of your commitment. The matter to put is simply of heart. One of your crewmen caught a glimpse of just how much it all meant to you. In his words, quote, before the last tack, Dennis said, OK guys, this is the last tack in the 1987 America's Cup. I turned around and looked back. He was crying. He had tears in his eyes. And the crewman went on to explain that you have to remember that this hasn't been any gravy walk for Dennis. He's a regular American guy, a smart guy who worked his way up from the bottom and deserves the credit for what he's done. Well, Dennis, today we congratulate you, and today we give you that credit. Thank you. I'm going to word now to your Australian hosts and competitors, Ambassador and Mrs. Dahlrippel. Of course, millions of Australians must be disappointed by the outcome of these races, just as so many Americans felt the 1983 loss so keenly. But I want you to know that I've heard again and again from Dennis and others that the Australian people could not have been more open, friendly, or sportsman-like. On behalf of the thousands of Americans who have visited Australia for these races, I want to thank Prime Minister Hawk, the Perth Yacht Club, and the Australian people themselves. I can't help thinking that the America's Cup has brought our two nations already close, still closer. For in following these races, we were all able to share something ancient and deep within us, man's fascination with wind and water. Listen, if you wanted the words of sports writer Tony Champlin, in sailing, there is a term called lift, which is both technical and poetic at once. It describes the moment of acceleration in a sailboat, the moment when the sails harden against the wind and the boat begins to slide forward faster and faster until you can suddenly feel what William Buckley meant by the title of his sailing book, Airborne. How something moving so slowly about the pace of a moderate jog can impart such exhilaration in this moment is probably unanswerable. Hang gliding, dropping in a parachute, doing barrel rolls in a light airplane, the thrills are easy to understand. But the moment of lift in a sailboat is just as much a leap off the earth, Airborne. Well, gentlemen of the Stars and Stripes, for a few days, you enable all of us to become Airborne. And we thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. As you might remember, I got a phone call from you back in 1983, and Tom answered the phone. I think he said the president saw on the phone and wants to tell you that you fouled up. That's the printed version anyway. Well, you might remember that I made you a personal promise at that time to do everything I could to bring the cup back home to America where it belonged. So here it is. This is not only a victory for the great crew and team of Stars and Stripes. It's a victory for American technology, a victory for the American will to compete anywhere in the world. And I might say, and be able to win. It's really a victory for the American spirit, of which you've done such a tremendous job to be our leader. And I can't tell you how much it means to the entire team and support crew of Stars and Stripes to be part of this tremendous victory and bringing the cup back home where it belongs. And I'd just like to say thank you all for the tremendous reception that we got. We had no idea what it would be like when we got home. We were 12,000 miles away, and we were just concentrating on winning the cup. And this meant so much for us to come back here and have this tremendous reception. And I just can't tell you how great it is to be back home in America. It really means a lot to see all of our friends and supporters to be with us in this tremendous victory. So at this time, trying to remember all my lines, Bob Hock made sure that he sent me a little message to go along with your cup here, and I'll find it in a second. Don't worry now. My dear Ron, enjoy the hat. You can keep it. Well, that's nice of him there. Take pleasure in the cup. But remember, it's only a temporary possession, and we'll be back to get it in 1990. Congratulations and best wishes, Bob Hock, Prime Minister. So congratulations. And I'd just like to take a moment and add to the president's comments about what tremendous people the Australians were. In defeat, they couldn't have been more gracious, and they just were a wonderful sportsmanship. And any of you that have the chance to visit Australia will find out for yourself. But I'm sure any one you talk to on the Stars and Stripes group will tell you and reaffirm what tremendous people they were in Western Australia, and they were really part of the whole cup. So my congratulations to people of Australia. As a remembrance from the Mr. President, from the crew of Stars and Stripes, we'd like to have you display this wherever you choose and remember us here in our victory, a half-model of our boats, the first one we've seen, and we'd like to have you have this as part of our victory. Thank you very much. So if you'd help me hoist this cup, I'm sure everyone would like to take your picture here. Thanks for having us. It really means a lot to us. Thank you very much.